


Kiss Kiss

by Futsin



Category: Burn Notice
Genre: F/M, Friends to Lovers, Non-Canon Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-24
Updated: 2014-02-24
Packaged: 2018-01-13 15:18:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1231267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Futsin/pseuds/Futsin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A moment between former verbal-sparring partners, where truth is shown, intimacy is earned, and change is desired.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kiss Kiss

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Missy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/gifts).



_1._

            Her first thought was of Michael. Her eyes slid open slow, with the warm sunlight greeting her on the white sheets. The bed felt extremely comfy... despite its unfamiliarity. And it was that as her next thought. Where? How? Who? She started to rise, also slow, but this time quiet. There arose the pangs of sore pain and healing injury bit into her abdomen, with her hand sent on recon to inspect it. She was still dressed in the clothes from earlier. The stakeout, the shoot-out, the blow out... Fingertips found the bandage. She admired the work as she stroked it, rather enjoying the prompted sensation of spikes and jolts. But it wasn’t Michael; he didn’t patch people up like this. And this wasn’t the loft. That had been blown up, for a fourth time, two weeks earlier. She tried to remind herself of those things, yet always her first thought was his name.  
            “Good morning.” The voice made it clear and she sighed, turning over.  
            “Sam. Is this your new girlfriend’s place?” Fiona wasn’t sure to be mad or not.  
            Sam walked from the doorway, beers akimbo, over to the other side of the bed. “Actually, Fi, this is my new place.” He passed her the beer and sat down. She took it without hesitation, but did not sip. Her jaw wouldn’t move from its dropped position.  
            “ _Your_ new place?” she repeated. “I can’t imagine. Sam Axe not leeching off the 1% of Miami, living an independent life in a...” She looked around. “Respectable décor.” He smirked back and offered his bottle to her. She clinked back. “To new ways.” They both took swigs and she felt it instantly. _Damn it, Sam, I’m injured and you offer me alcohol before food?  
_             “How are you feeling?” He asked, a lot kinder than she expected and it took her a moment to respond. Sam’s eyes had that genuine look. The same when Michael tried to do something stupid or those times he’d upset Madeline. Was something wrong?  
            “From what I can remember, I feel a lot better than I should be right now.”  
            “It wasn’t so bad. Clean shot, straight through, no mess on the inside. It was the fall you took that had me worried, but I got you checked out and doc said you were fine.”  
            “You took me to a doctor?” She was about to raise her voice, but then-  
            “Yeah, I have a buddy who owes me.” _Of course you do, Sam._  
            He turned towards the door. “Hungry? I haven’t had the chance to put my new kitchen to use yet.” She held up her beer. “Isn’t this breakfast?” He smirked. “I promised you a cold one before the shooting started. These have both been in my fridge for the past 38 hours, 22 minutes, and 15 seconds... but that’s beside the point. I’d be a terrible host if I didn’t offer you something to eat.” He took the bottle from her and started for the door. “I don’t think I have anything that fits you, unless you want to dig into the Axe Archive of `92.” She smirked. “Thank you, Sam.”  
            He turned from the door and for the first time she looked at him and saw the hero he always acted like he was. Again, with that genuine look on his face... she wondered if it had always been an act. “Don’t mention it,” he said.

 

  _2._

            Sam was cooking some omelets when she came out, still with bed-head and now dressed in one of his shirts. Her tank top had been cut to patch up the gunshot wound, so she dug around. When he turned his head, he tried not to sharply inhale. Fiona looked good, _damn_ good, in the blue long-sleeved shirt, that was too big for her but in just the right places. He put on the charming smirk and nodded. “You look ready to fight an army. Have a seat, almost done with the eggs.”  
            Fi took a chair at the small table and looked around. The biggest surprise was seeing it was a house. He hadn’t mentioned he was moving at all, now suddenly this. Maybe the latest disappearance of their philosophical leader had gotten to him more than usual. She hadn’t been there when the last words between Michael and Sam had been spoken. The comfort he showed here was easy to slip into her and she rested her sore body against the chair.  
            “How did you settle things with DeMarco?” She had to know. The job was a big one, which was why they had an understanding a risk of gunplay would be included. There was a pause before Sam replied. “We had to take a pay cut thanks to the shooting. Had to bribe a few more officers than usual.” He got her omelet on a plate and quickly started finishing prep on his own. Fiona frowned at his back and he didn’t have to look. “Look, we’re lucky the cop that took the call of reported gunfire was it. Happened to be the nephew of one of our buddies. He got us off easy.”  
            Sam finally sat down. Fiona was halfway through her food. She found it surprisingly delicious. Must have been taking classes. She didn’t say anything for a while and Sam didn’t bother to reply. The quiet became something bordering on soothing.  
            After breakfast, he got the dishes put in the sink for later. There was just enough of a mess to know it was the pad of the retired former-alcoholic-turned-bounty hunter and do-gooder vigilante. Past the kitchen and into the living room, Fi could see a mantel with photos of old friends, possible family. A cabin in the woods somewhere looked back at her from one of them. It was the first time that she felt that she had ever stepped into Sam’s world. To her surprise, she kind of liked it.  
            And of course, she had to ask.  
            “So, when did you decide to get your own place?”  
            “Oh, a while back, when the last relationship fell through and two days later I realized I remembered more names of ladies I’d failed than missions I’d run. Either I had to change or I would get stuck, again.” He’d sat down and was back to his beer by now. She had declined to continue hers.  
            “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you settle anywhere for long.”  
            “It’s not something I’m always proud of.”  
            “I hope it lasts.” She looked away at that, back to the pictures. She saw one of Michael, from a long while back. It had the wear and tear of being kept through hell.            “Thanks, Fi.” He drank, but his words had a sober tone.  
            “You have a lot of pictures over there.”  
            “Yeah!” He brightened a bit. “I had most of them in storage, some are from friends. Helps the place feel like home.”  
            “It certainly has a charm I’ve never seen from you.” She gave a little smile. Play.  
            “Well, I’m a complicated kinda guy,” he replied. Play back.

 

_3._

            After the dishes were done, they both finished their beer. When he didn’t offer her a second one and got none for him, then she began to worry. “Sam. What’s wrong?”  
            He looked up and smiled. “Nothin’. I just needed a change in my life.”  
            She wasn’t going to let him shut the door on her. Her words charged through it. “Would this have anything to do with what you and Michael talked about?”  
            His jaw clenched, making his chin stick out a little more. “Of course not.”  
            She leaned forward, elbows on table, and thin arms lost his shirt. “ _Sam._ ”  
            He leaned back. “It’s got nothin’ to do with Mike. He disappears, we go to pieces about it, we get ourselves back together, he comes riding in on his horse, and we go chase the bad guys again. Same old story, same old Mikey.”  
            This time, she paused. “He’s not coming back this time.”  
            It took a little longer than usual for him to bark in return. “Of course he is!” But suddenly, out from the lips of Sam Axe, the loyal friend, came words that wouldn’t stop. “ _He always does_. And we get some new threat from the CIA or some secret black ops organization, we spend a year having to be suckered by a bunch of suits and just when we think we’re going to get answers, he disappears again, he gets captured, we go into hiding, and the whole fucking thing gets broken all over!”

            He panted after the tirade. She did, too. He from anger, her from... tension.  
            Sam continued. “I love Mike, I love all of you guys. I’m always going to be there for you, but some times I need a _here_ to come back to. At the end of the day, Fi, this makes me happy. I haven’t been this at peace in years, maybe ever. And it’s just getting started.” He stood up and started for the door, pulling his car keys from his pocket. She realized he was leaving and tried to stop him, but the words that so freely came out of him hit a brick wall in her mouth.  
            “I’ll get your car from your place and you can go home.”  
            “Sam, I didn’t mean...”  
            “It’s fine. I’ll be right back.”

 

            Almost until Sam returned, she looked around the house. It had its age in places, but he’d found a good home. The rest of the photos made her smile. There was one of Madeline and Nate, another of Nate and Michael with baby Charlie. Then, Jesse with his big cheesy grin, then one of the whole group. There was even one of just her, which she didn’t even remember having taken, but immediately she was struck by how serious her eyes were in the photo. Its memory of her became a mirror into what she felt must have been one of her worst moments. When violence was easy and justice was an excuse, not a reason. A knot in her stomach grew as the minutes passed and she went to take a shower to relax more than cleanse her. She was in the middle of it when the front door opened. “Sam?” she called out. “Yeah!” He yelled back, shutting the door.  
            The shower was running and he felt a weird little twinge in, of all places, his hands. The image of Fi showering hit him. A thought like a droplet of water in a pool in a cave echoed in his head. _Touch._ He shook it off and went into the bedroom. He put the clothes he’d gotten for her on the mattress, along with her keys and wallet. He was on his way out when the shower stopped and closing the door behind him when she stepped into the room wearing a towel. He needed a drink.  
            She ran her finger over the clothes and couldn’t help but smile at what he chose. The shirt had been for a cover I.D. at a punk rock club two years prior, but she kept it. Never had the chance to wear it. It was a girl’s tee, black, with the words “MS. BANG BANG” on the front in aqua blue grunge lettering.  
            Fiona smiled and got dressed, concealing the minor conflict inside her. It was when she got a look in the full size mirror on the dresser, dressed as she was, in a house of a friend she knew, but not a home she was familiar with. The shirt was the final clue. Then, she knew.

 

_4._

            Sam turned when she came back into the kitchen, keys in her hand.  
            “So, I’ll be on my way,” she said. “Thanks for breakfast.”  
            “Anytime, Fi. Mi casa, su casa.”  
            She tugged at the hem of the shirt, lifting it a little. “I’m glad I got to finally wear this thing. Does it look good?” He smirked. “At least it’s accurate. First moment I saw it, I thought, ‘she should be wearing this every day!’ Or at least whenever you use your handy-dandy C4... which is the same amount, anyway.” His hand gestured at the writing. “Bang Bang. Could use a little more boom.” She smiled and walked over towards him.  
            “You know, Sam... there’s a first part the shirt forgot about.”  
            “What’s that?” Sam swallowed hard.  
            Before he knew what hit him, Fi had stepped up on her tippy-toes and pecked him on the lips. Twice. “Kiss kiss.” She hopped down and he froze. There was a pause and she expected an answer. Not moving until she had one. The few times of bomb disposal came flashing back before Sam’s eyes.

            “Fi...” He hesitated.  
            Her smile deepened, but not happily. “Michael’s not here, Sam. And you said it yourself. You’ll always be there; for us, for me, and Madeline and Jesse and everyone.” She put a hand softly on his chin. “I’ll always be there for you, too.”  
            She embraced him. Her slim arms that felt like weapons, snaking around and squeezing him. She rested her head against his shoulder and waited expectantly. Sam leaned down and held her back. It was warmer than she thought it would be and she knew finally she’d made the right choice.  
            “Fiona, I...” She heard the tremble in his voice and pulled back. Tears were coming down his face. Her fingers came to wipe them off and he took her hand in his. He kissed it and leaned his face into her touch, like the beast before beauty longing for affection. Intimacy. She gave it with a slow tug and her own pressing of lips to his skin.  
            “Don’t decide everything now,” she said. “If this is what you want... I’m here. But if we’re going to make this work... we have to have both parts together.”  
            He smirked past a sob, his old gruff exterior of the veteran breaking through. She saw the little boy past the face. The soul beneath, pure despite all the horrors, made her wonder if her own could ever look like that. He kissed her hand again, then again.

“Like Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.”

She nodded and broke the embrace. Her feet practically skipped to the door for her to leave. When she looked back, it almost tore her heart in half to see the eyes looking back at her. But she knew, for now, they would have to stay afar. To figure this out and in the end, make sure their two halves would work.


End file.
